While dawdling at the tills I noticed the brand new cafe was offering a plastic box, prefilled with all the cream tea acoutrements. Could I resist? Could I buffalo!

The plastic boxes were in the fridge and contained a scone, wrapped in cling-film. A pat of butter, and pre-packaged pots of cream and jam. Jam varied from box to box - I chose a strawberry one.

Scone, plain and on the small side - and very over-chilled from the fridge, but basically sound. Cream was a pre-packaged pot and HUGE - more than enough for the scone, so I didn’t use the butter, tucked it in my bag for use at home. Jam - Frank Coopers - a good brand, but my plastic pot contained no actual fruit, and was a tad solid.

Tea in a pot. Milk in plastic prepacks (grrr). Yield, two cups of slightly over-strong tea.

Overall I was pretty impressed - and if the price is correct, pretty unbeatable value.

£1.29 !!!!

Note: This price may well be a mistake. The cream tea in a box should have been £1.79 plus 79p for the tea, but somehow the till turned it into £1.29 for the lot. I expressed surprise, but didn’t argue! (The girl rang everything up correctly, I watched it register - perhaps a till programming error - or maybe a special opening offer for the new cafe?) –>

Guest Reviewer: Richy

After waiting for some considerable time to be served (sitting outside on a grey but warm day) a charming tall, lean, toned and very pretty dark haired, olive skinned chap finally came to take out order. We had one cream tea and tea for two shared between 3 of us so ended up with a scone and a third each which turned out to be more than adequate.

The scones were white fruit and very slightly dry/over cooked. The cream was very thick and divine. The jam was a slight let down, rather solid and lacking in the feel that it had seen real fruit. The tea supply was very generous although we were not given a choice - I rather like an Assam with a scone, but each to their own.

That makes it all sound much worse than it was, nice setting, large scones, goodly supply
of both cream and jam, very hot tea, sparkling cutlery and crockery and a dishy waiter - all told about 7 out of 10.

£5.90 - for cream tea, plus additional tea for two –>

As I entered the Redwoods Restaurant - a brand new building, all glass, chrome and eco-wood effects - I passed a staff member reading comment cards. Peering over his shoulder I read “RESTAURANT DISAPPOINTING!!” in big capital letters. I turned to watch a pair of very brown scones being walked to a garden table and braced myself for disaster.

All the scones were in the fridge with the cream and jam (first rule of bakery products - DON’T store in fridge) and all looking dark brown - but a nice size and fruited. Two kinds of jam on offer in unlabelled dishes, but my experienced eyes detected strawberry and raspberry - both red. Good. Cream, whipped and piped in a decorative manner, which charmed my stony heart. Both portions were generous, allowing me to really load my scone up. But as I feared the scone was verging on the rock bun, and the outer raisins a bit burnt tasting. The inside was good though, you could tell it would have been a jolly good scone if they’d just turned the gas down a bit.

Tea, served in quite pretty metal pot, with real milk in a teeny little job. Yield - 3 cups - lovely.

All in all an excellent cream tea, let down by the over-cooked scone. Was it a one-off, or do they always set their oven too high? Do I have to go back to try again? I just don’t know.

£3.60 –>

Courtesy of the UK Tea Council –>

Not strictly a picture of the tea - but look - 95p a portion!

Now, don’t be fooled by the above picture. The jam in it is not officially part of the cream tea. I was sneakily given it free by one of the girls in the tea-room when I started taking photos of their hideously over-priced jam in the fridge.

Tea - all as it should be, pot - check, real milk - check. Scone - fruit (hurrah!) nice size, nice fresh texture, butter came free with the scone - all should have been well.

HOWEVER - cream and jam were in the fridge in individual plastic pots and priced at an additional 95p a portion. Now I might have just about coped with this for the cream (although the cream was clearly crusty from having been in the fridge all day) but 95p for a spoonful of jam????? NO WAY! I realise this may be shirking my duties as a cream tea reviewer, but I simply cannot bring myself to pay 95p for a dab of jam. I am not going to be taken advantage of - oh no, I have my tea-based pride.

I checked the gift shop in the stable courtyard. You can purchase a full jar of NT branded jam for £2.50. Let’s take a stand people - refuse to buy the jam in the teashop. It’s a crime.

£3.40 - will buy you just the tea and scone and butter - no jam. Pah. –>